art makes us more alive.

Yearning

Anna Berezovskaya

My word this morning is Yearning. To yearn is "to feel an earnest desire; that is literally, to have a desire or inclination stretching towards the object or end." (according to Noah Webster 1828). When I look for Synonyms I get words like: ambition, appetite, aspiration, craving, thirst, and ache. It occurs to me that when I am depressed I have very little yearning going on. When I am doing well I yearn a lot and it leads me into a sort of heart break and disappointment. When I came across the paintings of Anna Berezovkaya, the 27 year old artist from Russia the other day I felt my heart breaking again. This is what really great art does to me over and over again.

There are so many things I desire that remain out of my reach. It is also true that some of what I desire can be scooped up into my arms from time to time. Perhaps I am coming to understand that my tender heart will keep me stretching towards the life that I cannot have but this is balanced out when I cultivate a gratefulness for the life I do have. To truly appreciate what is within my reach is where I find my broken heart coming back together again. Within this constant yearning and then seeking the peace within gratefulness a powerful wave pattern emerges that keeps my life full with potent color and rich pattern like the paintings I love the most.